REPORT: Poole Pirates v Workington Comets (Championship)

Pirates managed to see off the Workington Comets but could only secure two league points as the Cumbrian side were resilient enough for the bonus point.

The rare sight of Richard Lawson being re-passed, especially by a track debutant (Fraser Bowes), evidenced that the Pirates were very much going to be in for a real slog against the resurrected Comets, who had arrived amidst the news of an enforced withdrawal for Tate Zischke with a foot injury sustained in Poland. Thankfully for the Pirates they were able to share the opening heat as Tobias Thomsen was unchallenged by the Comets captain Troy Batchelor. But with thirteen points to make up in the quest for the bonus, heat shares were not strongly favoured by Poole, but lo and behold the next two heats followed the pattern. Jacob Hook was a convincing winner of heat two, his partner, former Pirate, Vinnie Foord having been squeezed out by a determined Paul Starke and William Cairns move, whilst Lewis Kerr became the first Poole rider to take the flag but his usually reliable buddy, Zach Cook had been very slow off the start and suffered only his third non-scoring home ride of the season.   The trend of shared heats was arrested in emphatic fashion through Anders Rowe and William Cairns in heat four, the teenager on full guard as he had Foord all over him like a rash. With one maximum heat advantage in the bag, Poole wasted no time in doubling that tally, Cook making a much sharper start this time and able to follow in Kerr's tracks. Bowes packed up having barely done a lap and Batchelor rode the last lap and a half seemingly with a puncture. (19-11)

Heat six started postively with Poole, as Lawson was clear and Thomsen was intent on joing him, but he ran into a bit of trouble on the sweep round the first bend and couldn't avoid Lawson's back wheel. Both riders went down, tangled in their bikes and Thomsen getting his foot trapped. After some precision work to free the men from the machines. Thomsen learnt he was disqualified, giving himself a little time to recover. It was to prove that he had more time than expected, for there were another three attempts before a result could be inked in. Initially, Lawson had shown his back wheel to Hook who went crashing down at the first turn, then Lawson moved a fraction early in the next attempt, picking up a warning for his misdemeanour. Ultimately it was a textbook start that brought about his one-man band heat share. Workington were relieved that they hadn't suffered a hat-trick of maximums, which would have wiped out the advantage that the opening three heats in Cumbria had given them. Poole's hopes of getting on level aggregate terms took a further blow when Rowe's bike resembled an  old bone shaker and refused to carry him the full distance. Jye Etheridge and Hook both passed Starke and the meeting's gap was brought back to just four points. Thomsen's luckless evening took another blow Foord,  having found some drive off the fourth turn on the first lap, carried all his speed into the first turn second time around passing Thomsen in the process.  Thomsen then caught his back end and both riders crashed out. Thomsen was again disqualified but Foord was ruled out through injury. Hook covered for him in the re-start but he couldn't impress on Cairns, restricting Workington to a 4-2, trimming Poole's lead to justtwo points. It had seemed ages since we last saw the Cook-Kerr combo on track, but when they appeared in heat nine they prevailed yet again, delivering a big margin 5-1 over Antti Vuolas and Hook. Could Poole start rebuilding that lead? It looked forlorn in the early stages of heat ten as Lawson and Thomsen were on the wrong end of a 5-1. But little fazes the Rocketman and he switched to turbo drive and produced a superb move to not just pass both Etheridge and Vuolas, but to go on and put plenty of bike lengths between him and them. Unfortunately for Poole, Thomsen's night to forget ended with him, at least completing four laps, but a distant last. (33-27)

Bowes again frustrated the Pirates as he set himself up with a win and whilst Rowe gave chase he was unable to close in and Starke had no answer to Batchelor in third. Crucially, Kerr was beaten for first time, Etheridge his conqueror, with Cairns third. The Comets doing their best to protect that bonus point as Batchelor proved when he found his gating gloves and held out against Lawson and Rowe. If the bonus point was  going to be claimed by Poole they required a very big finish from Poole and Captain Cook showed he was up for it with a ride which saw him blast from with third to first but Etheridge and Hook were content to keep Cairns out of the mix, confirming that the bonus point was on its way to Cumbria and more could follow if things went south for Poole in heat 15! Lawson though steadfastly refused that to be a scenario with his third win of the night and it proved largely academic to the final result that Kerr made his poorest gate of the evening.

POOLE 47
Richard Lawson 2,3,3,2,3=13 (5)
Tobias Thomsen 1',FD,FD,0=1+1 (4)
Lewis Kerr 3,3,3,2,0=11 (5)
Zach Cook 0,2',2',3=7+2 (4)
Anders Rowe 3,R,2,1'=6+1 (4)
Paul Starke 2,1,0,RS=3 (3)
William Cairns 1',2',2,1',0=6+3 (5)
.
WORKINGTON 43
Troy Batchelor 0,1,1,3=5 (4)
Fraser Bowes 3,2,R,3,3,2=13 (6)
Rider Replacement
Jye Etheridge 1',3,2,3,2,1'=12+2 (6)
Antti Vuolas 0,1',1,1',0=3+2 (5)
Jacob Hook 3,2,2',1,0,0,1'=9+2 (7)
Vinnie Foord 0,1,FN,NS=1 (2)
.
Ht 1: F.Bowes, R.Lawson, T.Thomsen, T.Batchelor 3-3 3-3 [60.27]
Ht 2: J.Hook, P.Starke, W.Cairns, V.Foord 3-3 6-6 [61.11]
Ht 3: L.Kerr, F.Bowes, J.Etheridge, Z.Cook 3-3 9-9 [60.58]
Ht 4: A.Rowe, W.Cairns, V.Foord, A.Vuolas 5-1 14-10 [61.35]
Ht 5: L.Kerr, Z.Cook, T.Batchelor, F.Bowes [rtd] 5-1 19-11 [50.96]
Ht 6: R.Lawson, J.Hook, A.Vuolas, T.Thomsen [fell exc] 3-3 22-14 [60.69]
Ht 7: J.Etheridge, J.Hook, P.Starke, A.Rowe [rtd] 1-5 23-19 [61.65]
Ht 8: F.Bowes, W.Cairns, J.Hook, T.Thomsen 2-4 25-23 [61.1]
Ht 9: L.Kerr, Z.Cook, A.Vuolas, J.Hook 5-1 30-24 [60.81]
Ht 10: R.Lawson, J.Etheridge, A.Vuolas, T.Thomsen 3-3 33-27 [61.18]
Ht 11: F.Bowes, A.Rowe, T.Batchelor, P.Starke 2-4 35-31 [61.37]
Ht 12: J.Etheridge, L.Kerr, W.Cairns, J.Hook 3-3 38-34 [61.45]
Ht 13: T.Batchelor, R.Lawson, A.Rowe, A.Vuolas 3-3 41-37 [61.09]
Ht 14: Z.Cook, J.Etheridge, J.Hook, W.Cairns, V.Foord [NS] 3-3 44-40 [60.91]
Ht 15: R.Lawson, F.Bowes, J.Etheridge, L.Kerr 3-3 47-43 [61.42]

SGB Referee Chris Gay
WORKINGTON won toss and chose gates 1&3 | POOLE choose gates 1&3 in heat 15
League Points: POOLE 2 WORKINGTON 1

Full report to follow

Photo credit Liam Cockwell & Tony Hartmann